Ink Swatch - Diamine - Ancient Copper

Diamine Ancient Copper is a fun one, but not without its faults.

It’s a dark coppery red, almost burgundy, with plenty of shading. Depending on the paper and how the ink shades, it can also look a little like rust or brick. There is some sheen but not much shows in writing.

The main downside of this one is that it has a potential to gum up and clog pens. I’ve used it quite a few times and in a couple cases I had to either completely disassemble a pen or use my ultrasonic cleaner to flush the ink because nothing else could get it to budge.

Scans

The scans cut out the sheen and in the darker areas it looks a bit more reddish-brown. The shading is very prominent on Iroful and somewhat less on MD. On Col-o-ring it seems a bit dry and had trouble putting down ink from the dip pen.

Swatch Card Scans. Click to enlarge.

The color is similar on all three paper types, even in the shading.

Photos

The sheen covers large portions of the swatches but doesn’t really show up like that in writing. It doesn’t seem to have a particular color, it’s mostly just shiny. I hesitate to call it “silver” since it’s mostly reflecting the light shined on it. It does give the writing a hint of a metallic look in the right conditions, however.

Swatch Card Photos. Click to enlarge.

Microscope

Under the microscope, you can see the sheen mostly clinging to the edges or borders when it does show up. In some places the sheen looks a little coppery, which accentuates the look of the ink well. The color is still surprisingly consistent, most of the variation here comes from the texture of the paper.

Ink under Magnification. Click to enlarge.

Chromatography

Chromatography strip scan

The chromatography is quite full compared to some others. It starts with a line of grayish-purple then a large area of magenta, then red-orange, then a little area of yellow-orange.

Chromatography strip photo under UV light

Under UV the orange-ish areas near the leading edge do glow a little, but not much. As with many other inks there is a thin blue halo at the leading edge.

Verdict

Since I first used it, it’s been a favorite, despite the problems I’ve had with a couple pens being clogged. It looks great, and has a lot of good qualities that more than make up for the potential problems. However, the best practice is to treat it like a pigment ink and only use it in pens that seal very well, or make sure it gets used and cleaned and doesn’t have an opportunity to dry out.